New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, reflecting on her equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also her “biggest” political adversary, in her biography, said that there has been “no real contact with him”.
“Narendra Damodardas Modi has been the Prime Minister of India for more than twelve years as of this writing and is now in his third term in office. To this day, I’ve had practically no real contact with him,” the former Congress President penned in the book.
The Congress leader goes on to say that they have met on multiple occasions, greeting each other with a formal “namaste”, but the cordiality and bonhomie that existed in the political milieu all along remained missing among them because “he tends to look away”.
The disclosures on their “uneasy” relationship came in “Belonging: A Journey of Love”, Gandhi’s 544-page memoir, which hit the shelves on Tuesday. The book has been published by HarperCollins India.
“We meet at semi-official gatherings — for instance, at the end of every Parliament session. It’s a very small room, and usually many people are present, but when he comes face-to-face with me, we greet each other with a formal namaste. This is different from the past, when leaders across party divides would treat one another with cordiality. He tends to look away, avoiding eye contact,” she wrote.
Sonia Gandhi also highlights in the book that she and PM Modi hail from different ideological worlds, and the latter’s idea of India was very different from hers.
“Apart from such brief exchanges, we have never really conversed, though we’ve exchanged formal birthday and New Year greetings over the years,” she further wrote.
She has also documented the incidents when the Prime Minister enquired about her health after her discharge from hospital.
The book recalling one such moment says, PM Modi asked: “Theek hain aap? (Are you alright?)”, to which she replied, “Ji, ab main theek hoon, shukriya (Yes, thank you… I am okay now)”.
In her memoir, the veteran Congress leader has also objected to name-calling and coarse language used by no less than the serving Prime Minister against India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, adding that this was the result of his “conditioning” by the RSS – BJP’s ideological parent.
Drawing a sharp contrast in their style of functioning, she says that he was “fighting for his vision of India, and I for mine: an India against hegemony, an India that stands for inclusiveness, secularism, and social justice.”
The memoirs by Sonia Gandhi, giving insight on many political issues, are set to create political ripple and uproar. The BJP has already mounted scathing criticism, calling it an attempt to “whitewash the history”.
(IANS)
